The Bradley Manning Case and Our Decade of Denial

[Bonobo]

22. I understand what you are trying to say. May I ask a couple of questions?

1. Manning does not have any "standing" for making a "case" as you put it. He was in a privileged position to be able to access information not available to most people and so he released it. How is that NOT blowing a whistle? Simply because he did not, himself, pour through it all?

2. You seem to feel that if Manning had gone through all the documents and picked and chosen what "case" he wanted to present, then THAT would make the difference between him being a "leaker" and being a "whistleblower". Can you understand why that difference toes not mean much to the rest of us? Maybe as a military man, you are focusing on some concept of secrets that need to be kept and so you tend to condemn him for revealing them while the rest of us are focusing on the crimes that are being kept secret so we tend to focus on them and laud him for revealing them. Make sense?

3. Do you not see why it is important to protect people who reveal hidden crimes being perpetrated by the govt.?

4. Do you agree that soldiers should NOT follow orders that they know to be immoral?